2 October 2009

2 October 2009

Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

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CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE. 202-955-5500.

Scozzafava Embraces SpitzerPaterson Budget [The Club for Growth]

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ATR Sponsors Coalition Letter in Support of Mandatory Waiting Period for Legislation [Americans for Tax Reform]

OCT 01, 2009 07:23P.M.

Scozzafava Clarifies Support for Spitzer-Paterson Budget

OCT 01, 2009 04:50P.M. The following was initially posted at www.fiscalaccountability.org Today, CFA and ATR sent a letter, where we were joined by numerous other

Washington – A new ad campaign by Club for Growth PAC in New York’s 23rd Congressional District highlights liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava’s record of supporting the Democratic agenda, including bank bailouts and last year’s huge Paterson tax-and-spend budget.

groups who voiced support of a mandatory 72-hour waiting pe...

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From the Oxymoron File: The Neutral Subsidy [Cato at Liberty]

Scozzafava’s spokesman, Matt Burns, doesn’t deny her support of last year’s huge tax-and-spend budget, but he calls the ads (seen below) “false” because the budget was introduced by disgraced exGovernor Eliot Spitzer, not David Paterson (“Scozzafava: Club ad is dishonest,” Times Union October 1, 2009).

OCT 01, 2009 04:11P.M. Peter Van Doren points me to some revealing passages in a new article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. In “Subsidizing Creativity through Network Design: Zero-Pricing and Net Neutrality,” Robin S. Lee and Tim Wu caution against tiered pricing for Internet access services, writing:

In fact, the 2008-2009 New York State budget cited by Club for Growth PAC “was signed into law by Governor David Paterson” (“State Budget,” Buffalo News, April 24, 2008). According to the Albany Times Union, “Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Paterson did an extraordinary job leading us” through the budget process (“Budget built on borrowing,” Times Union, April 10, 2008).

[U]nless sufficient bandwidth and quality of service can be guaranteed for the “free” Internet, there is a risk that . . . tiering will serve to sidestep de facto prohibition on termination fees. . . . [A] priced-priority system could simply become a de facto fee charged for all content providers if the “free” Internet was of sufficiently poor quality and consumers shifted their usage behavior accordingly. . . . [T]his might dampen the introduction of new content and services and eliminate the subsidy for content innovation currently provided by net neutrality.

“If liberal Dede is much more comfortable embracing an Elliot Spitzer tax-and-spend budget, we’ll consider calling it that in future ads,” said Club President Chris Chocola. “Or, better yet, we’ll call it the ‘Spitzer-Paterson-Scozzafava budget’.” PAID FOR BY CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC AND NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR

Locking in net neutrality by regulation would lock in a subsidy to content

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2 October 2009

providers. Lee and Wu prefer it, and many of us may like the results, but

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it’s hard to call a subsidy regime “neutral.”

Your Tax Dollars at Work [The Club for Growth]

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OCT 01, 2009 03:38P.M.

Thursday Links [Cato at Liberty]

Thanks to you, the federal government is going to dole out $615,175 to help digitize the Grateful Dead’s archive.

OCT 01, 2009 04:09P.M. • Education expert: More government involvement in the college loan business will increase the national debt and leave Americans footing the bill.

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Happy New Fiscal Year! ATR Proposes Resolutions for Policymakers [Americans for Tax Reform]

• How Congress is cooking the books: When it comes to the healthcare-reform debate honest budgeting is nowhere to be seen. • More background information on the elimination of the missile defense program in Europe.

OCT 01, 2009 03:14P.M. • How the “death tax” destroys wealth. Today marks the beginning of a new fiscal year. We are happy to see FY 09 go - the year was riddled with incredibly wasteful spending, bailout

• Podcast: “Knowledge, Power and the Financial Crisis“

after bailout and an almost trillion dollar spending and ...

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The Social Security Trust Fund Is A Lie [The Club for Growth] Senator Jim DeMint pulls no punches in this great op-ed. Money quote:

Sixty Years On, China Has Prosperity, Still Needs Freedom [Cato at Liberty]

“What our government has done is a crime.”

OCT 01, 2009 03:09P.M.

OCT 01, 2009 03:42P.M.

China’s rise from an isolated state-controlled economy in 1949 to the world’s third largest economy with a vibrant nonstate sector is something to celebrate on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Under Deng Xiaoping, China’s transition from plan to market began in earnest in December 1978. For more than 30 years now, China has gradually removed barriers to a market system and increased opportunities for voluntary exchanges. Special economic zones, the end of communal farming, the rise of township and village enterprises, and the massive increase in foreign trade have enabled millions of people to lift themselves out of abject poverty. Economic freedom has increased personal freedom, but the Chinese Communist Party has no intention of giving up its monopoly on power. China’s future will depend to a large extent on the path of political reform. Further strengthening of private property rights, including land

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rights, would create new wealth and a growing voice for limiting the power of government. It is doubtful that in another 60 years there will be

2 October 2009

Leviathan it is today. What a long, strange trip it’s been indeed.

single-party rule in China. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

A Novel Interpretation of “Green Tariffs” [Cato at Liberty“Green Tariffs”]

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Come Hear Uncle Sam’s Band, Playing to the Rising Tide of Debt [Cato at Liberty]

OCT 01, 2009 02:23P.M.

OCT 01, 2009 02:36P.M.

Here’s a nice follow up to my blog post on Tuesday: firms importing solar panels to the United States face a $70 million bill because of unpaid duties. It seems to me that a government truly concerned about global warming–putting aside the merits of that position–would want to encourage the adoption of solar panels, including by keeping them as cheap as possible. Nor, I would have thought, is this the time to add more fuel to the fire that is starting to characterize the U.S. trade relationship with China. There’s plenty enough fuel for that already.

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We Couldn’t Have Said It Better Ourselves [Americans for Tax Reform]

A $600,000 federal grant is chump change and I recognize that picking on individual awards generally isn’t worth the effort because there are bigger fish to fry. But every once in a while I think it’s alright to a highlight a particularly ridiculous grant award for the purpose of trying to help readers see that the federal government’s ability to spend money on virtually anything it wants has broader, negative implications. So when I read this morning that the Institute of Museum and Library Services (an independent federal agency) gave UC Santa Cruz’s $615,175 to archive Grateful Dead memorabilia online, I just couldn’t help myself.

OCT 01, 2009 01:44P.M. Robert Barro, an economist at Harvard had an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, entitled “Stimulus Spending Doesn’t Work.” We couldn’t have said it better oursel...

The title of my post refers to a lyric from the Dead song “Uncle John’s Band.” According to the lyrics, Uncle John’s Band’s motto is “don’t tread on me.” “Don’t tread on me” was a motto of the American patriots during the Revolutionary War and was prominently featured below a coiled rattlesnake on the famous Gadsden flag. The Gadsden flag, which I proudly own and used to hang in my Senate office, has regained popularity and can now be seen at tea party protests around the country. While some would like to dismiss the tea partiers as racists, the resurgence of the Gadsden flag indicates to me that a healthy number of folks simply recognize the American tradition of being leery of an all-powerful centralized authority. It’s safe to say that those patriots of yesterday could have never imagined that the small, limited federal government it spawned would turn into the overbearing $3.7 trillion

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2 October 2009

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

On the Kudlow Report Tonight [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$]

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Lies Our Professors Tell Us [Cato at Liberty]

OCT 01, 2009 01:04P.M.

OCT 01, 2009 01:02P.M. On Sunday, the Washington Post ran an op-ed by the chancellor and vice chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, in which the writers proposed that the federal government start pumping money into a select few public universities. Why? On the constantly repeated but never substantiated assertion that state and local governments have been cutting those schools off. This evening at 7pm ET:

As I point out in the following, unpublished letter to the editor, that is what we in the business call “a lie:”

THE STOCK MARKET WHAT TRIGGERED TODAY’S SELLOFF?

It’s unfortunate that officials of a taxpayer-funded university felt the need to deceive in order to get more taxpayer dough, but that’s what UC Berkeley’s Robert Birgeneau and Frank Yeary did. Writing about the supposedly dire financial straits of public higher education (“Rescuing Our Public Universities,” September 27), Birgeneau and Yeary lamented decades of “material and progressive disinvestment by states in higher education.” But there’s been no such disinvestment, at least over the last quarter-century. According to inflationadjusted data from the State Higher Education Executive Officers, in 1983 state and local expenditures per publiccollege pupil totaled $6,478. In 2008 they hit $7,059. At the same time, public-college enrollment ballooned from under 8 million students to over 10 million. That translates into anything but a “disinvestment” in the public ivory tower, no matter what its penthouse residents may say.

*Barry Ritholtz, Fusion IQ; Director of Equity; Big Picture Blogger *Zachary Karabell, CNBC Contributor; River Twice Research President *Mark Perry, University of Michigan-Flint economics & finance professor; “Carpe Diem” Blogger THE CLIMATE BILL: ANTI-GROWTH & HIGHER TAXES? Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee will join us. COMCAST & GE IN DEAL TALKS CNBC’s Scott Cohn reports. *Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times Deal Book Editor; NYTimes Chief Mergers & Acquisitions Reporter *Carl DiOrio, Hollywood Reporter

Since letters to the editor typically have to be pretty short I left out readily available data for California, data which would, of course, be most relevant to the destitute scholars of Berkeley. Since I have more space here, let’s take a look: In 1983, again using inflation-adjusted SHEEO numbers, state and local governments in the Golden State provided $5,963 per full-time-equivalent student. In 2008, they furnished $7,177, a 20 percent increase. And this while enrollment grew from about 1.2 million students to 1.7 million! Of course, spending didn’t go up in a straight line — it went up and down with the business cycle — but in no way was there anything you could call appreciable ”disinvestment.”

FED ON RATES/ BERNANKE HEARING *Bill Ford, Fmr. Atlanta Fed President; Middle Tennessee State University *Lee Hoskins, Pacific Research Institute Senior Fellow; Fmr. Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President IRAN IN THE CROSSHAIRS *Ken Timmerman, Middle East Data Project President; “Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran” Author *Larry Korb, Assistant Secy. of Defense in the Reagan Admin.; Center for American Progress Sr. Fellow

Unfortunately, higher education is awash in lies like these. Therefore, our debunking will not stop here! On Tuesday, October 6, at a Cato Institute/Pope Center for Higher Education Policy debate, we’ll deal with another of the ivory tower’s great truth-defying proclamations: that colleges and universities raise their prices at astronomical rates not

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because abundant, largely taxpayer-funded student aid makes doing so easy, but because they have to!

2 October 2009

President Obama’s budget-busting “stimulus” plan. A Club PAC radio ad (available below) will also run throughout the district and focuses on Scozzafava’s liberal voting record and her support of the Democratic agenda.

It’s a doozy of a declaration that should set off a doozy of a debate! To register to attend what should be a terrific event, or just to watch online, follow this link. I hope to see you there, and remember: Don’t believe everything your

“Doug Hoffman offers voters an alternative to a big tax and spend Democrat and a big tax and spend Republican,” added Chocola. “On the question of which candidate in this race would consistently and strongly support policies that grow our economy, Hoffman is the only choice.”

professors tell you, especially when it impacts their wallets!

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Club PAC on the air in NY-23 [The Club for Growth]

This text will be replaced by the flash music player. PAID FOR BY CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC AND NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR

OCT 01, 2009 12:34P.M.

CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE. 202-955-5500.

Club PAC Launches TV, Radio Ads in NY-23

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Congress Boosts Its Budget [Cato at Liberty]

Washington – Club for Growth PAC began a $250,000 television and radio ad campaign today in the special election for New York’s 23rd Congressional District. The campaign follows Club PAC’s recent endorsement of Doug Hoffman, a Republican running on the Conservative ticket, over liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava and Democrat Bill Owens.

OCT 01, 2009 12:17P.M. Politico reports: ” Congress is on the verge of giving itself a bump in its annual budget — even as local governments, families and businesses across the country are tightening their belts in the worst recession in decades.” Spending on the legislative branch of the federal government is set to rise 5.8 percent in fiscal 2010, and Politico details some of the dubious activities that will receive increased funding.

“At a time when 100% of House Republicans did the right thing in opposing President Obama’s big spending ‘stimulus’ plan that has failed to boost our economy, and a time when House and Senate Republicans have the unity and the votes needed to defeat big labor’s odious Card Check bill, it is outrageous to think that the New York Republican Party would offer up a nominee who supports the Obama/Pelosi stimulus and Card Check,” said Club President Chris Chocola. “There’s hardly a distinction between the Republican and Democratic candidates in this race.”

One statement in the story particularly caught my eye: ” ‘We have not seen a significant increase in overall legislative branch expenditures since nearly 2001,’ said Jonathan Beeton, a spokesman for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).” Who is he trying to fool? The bill under consideration will provide $4.7 billion in funding for Congress in 2010, which is way up from the $2.7 billion spent in 2001, according to the Congressional Research Service (page 3).

Club PAC’s television ad (seen below) will run in all three of the principle TV markets in NY-23 and asks the question, “Who’s more liberal: Dede Scozzafava or Bill Owens?” In the State Assembly, Scozzafava supported Governor Paterson’s massive tax-andspend budget, while Scozzafava and Owens both support the union-backed Card Check bill and

That’s a 74 percent increase in nine years, representing a very robust 6.4 percent annual average growth rate. And consider that the “customer base” for this spending has not increased–the number of members of Congress has remained fixed at 535. So while supporters of, say, an education program may say that

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spending needs to rise because the number of students is rising, much of the increased spending on the legislative branch would seem to go

2 October 2009

industry, and trade. China’s liberation has far to go, but the Chinese people today are much more free of government interference in their personal, daily lives than they were in the time of Mao.

directly into fattening the paychecks of politicians and their staffers.

When I point to China’s economic progress as an example of what trade liberalization can deliver, my debate opponents will sometimes counter that China is a communist country. But China’s dramatic growth has not occurred because of its residual communism. For 30 years now, its government has been in the process of abandoning the communist economic policies of Mao and his fellow “liberators,” much to the benefit

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Thursday’s Daily News [The Club for Growth]

of the Chinese people and the world.

OCT 01, 2009 11:40A.M. THE DAILY NEWS Why Not Eliminate the Cap-Gains Tax for Everyone? - Larry Kudlow, MP PA-Sen: Toomey Erases Specter’s Lead Glenn Thrush, The Politico Obama’s Not-So-Secret Plan to Raise Taxes James Pethakoukis, Reuters Serving Castro First - IBD Editorial Key Dems Confident Card-Check Will Pass - Kevin Bogardus, The Hill Stimulus Spending Doesn’t Work - R. Barro and C. Redlick, WSJ People Voting With Their One-Way U-Haul Rentals - Mark Perry, Carpe Diem Job Creation Bills Will Kill Them - Diana Furchtgott-Roth, RealClearMarkets Intuitive Econ Challenge - Bryan Caplan, EconLog The Richest People In America - Forbes Magazine Cubs 2, Pirates 8 -

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Will the Senate Pass a Bill that will cost 2,500,000 American jobs and an average tax increase of $3 [Americans for Tax Reform]

Associated Press

OCT 01, 2009 11:26A.M. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

In response to the Kerry-Boxer “Cap and Trade” National Energy Tax legislation released yesterday, ATR issued press releases to: Arkansas,

Reflections on China’s 1949 “Liberation” [Cato at Liberty“Liberation”]

California, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, M...

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OCT 01, 2009 11:38A.M.

The Economics of Euthanizing Dogs [The Club for Growth]

During a speaking trip to China three years ago, the young tour guide in Beijing kept referring to “the liberation.” I soon realized that she meant the October Revolution of 1949, in which Mao Tse Tung and the communists seized power and began their rule 60 years ago today.

OCT 01, 2009 11:23A.M. A sad, but informative blog post.

Far from liberating China, the reign of Mao represents one of the worst tyrannies in the history of mankind. Opposition parties, free speech and freedom of religion were quickly eliminated. The Great Leap Forward of 1958-61 forced the collectivization of agriculture, resulting in a famine that killed tens of millions. The Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, while not as deadly, unleashed chaos that crippled the economy and scarred a generation. As Gordon Chang writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning, the celebration by the Chinese people will be understandably muted. China’s real liberation began not 60 years ago, but 30 years ago, with the reforms of Deng Xiaoping. While China remains an oppressive, oneparty state politically, its economy has taken a true great leap forward in the past three decades because of market reforms in agriculture,

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2 October 2009

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Solar Panel Tariffs Strain U.S.-China Relationship [The Club for Growth]

The VAT Debate: Should Politicians in Washington Get a Huge New Source of Tax Revenue as a Reward for Overspending? [Cato at Liberty]

OCT 01, 2009 10:38A.M. More distortionary evidence of tariffs. From the New York Times: Companies that import solar panels to the United States are facing up to $70 million in unexpected tariffs.

OCT 01, 2009 10:13A.M. Based on five criteria, James Pethokoukis of Reuters connects the dots and warns that President Obama is going to propose a value-added tax.

[...]The issue began with a short letter to United States customs officials last December from the small American subsidiary of a Spanish energy company. The subsidiary, GES USA, wanted to know what the tariff would be to import certain solar panels from China.

Does President Obama have a secret plan to raise taxes on middle-class Americans — and,well, pretty much everybody else — with a Europeanstyle, value-added tax? Actually, it’s not such a big secret. …Obama’s campaign promise to not raise taxes on households making less than $250,000 a year was always considered a joke here inside the Beltway. …Maybe it was a joke inside the campaign, too. Since being elected, Obama has raised cigarette taxes and has advocated raising healthcare taxes, energy and small business taxes, in addition to corporate taxes. What’s more, economic advisers like Larry Summers seem eager to get rid of all the Bush tax cuts, not just those on so-called wealthy Americans. And it’s also no secret that economists love the idea of a VAT. It promotes savings over consumption, and its hidden nature may mean it has less behavioral impact on taxpayers. …Liberals love the idea of a VAT because it’s, well, so European — also because it does raise tons of revenue to expand government. And that is what Obama wants: more revenue to pay for bigger government. Is a VAT better than the soak-therich approach favored by Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangel? Sure. Of course, the concern is that a VAT would be in addition to new soak-the-rich taxes.

On Jan. 9, the customs agency wrote back that the panels had become too sophisticated to qualify for duty-free import. Instead - because the panels contain a basic electronic device for safety and energy efficiency - they would be treated as electric generators, subject to a duty of 2.5 percent.

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Listen to Underinformed Celebrities! [The Club for Growth] OCT 01, 2009 10:18A.M.

While the timing is unclear, his prediction is correct. The politicians in Washington want much bigger government, but they know that it will be difficult to achieve that goal without a big new source of revenue. The VAT would be perfect from their perspective. It is a form of national sales tax, but would be hidden in the price of products and therefore easy to increase. Moreover, every time they increase the VAT, they would use that as an excuse to raise income tax rates for “distributional fairness.” It is no exaggeration to say that the VAT is the biggest fiscal threat to the cause of limited government.

This hilarious video is a response to this video.

One final point about the column. Economists don’t love the VAT, per se, but they do view it as being less destructive – per dollar raised – than the income tax. But less destructive is still destructive. And since the VAT would be in addition to the taxes we have now (and actually create the conditions for higher income tax rates), its enactment would create a lose-lose situation for taxpayers.

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2 October 2009

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Can The House Even Pass a Healthcare Bill? [The Club for Growth]

What to Do When Your Ally Is the Aggressor? [Cato at Liberty]

OCT 01, 2009 10:01A.M.

That’s what Washington should ask itself after the new European Union report on the Russo-Georgian war last year. The EU has affirmed what long seemed apparent to independent observers: America’s ally, the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili, started the conflict. Which means in supporting Saakashvili the Bush administration backed the aggressor.

OCT 01, 2009 08:43A.M.

From the New York Times [emphasis added]: The goal [for House leadership] is a measure that can win at least the 217 votes needed for passage in a chamber where Democrats have a 256-to-177 edge over Republicans (there are two vacancies). With Republicans expected to be unanimous in opposition, Democrats can afford no more than 39 defectors.

Russia comes in for abundant criticism — after all, it took advantage of Saakashvili’s irresponsible aggressiveness to retaliate destructively. But on the essential point the EU blamed Tbilisi. Reports the Wall Street Journal:

At present, the factions of the disgruntled and politically nervous add up to more than that, though

In a statement, Ms. Tagliavini was blunt. “In the Mission’s view, it was Georgia which triggered off the war when it attacked Tskhinvali with heavy artillery on the night of 7 to 8 August 2008. …In particular, there was no massive Russian military invasion under way,” she said.

the numbers overlap among some of the groups.

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Washington’s support for the Georgian government probably encouraged Saakashvili to attempt the military conquest of South Ossetia, which had seceded with Russia’s assistance. After all, you are likely to take far greater risks if you believe the U.S. has your back. And if he was willing to start a war in expectation of U.S. military support against Moscow outside of NATO, imagine what he would do with his nation as a member of NATO.

How Cap and Tax Will Hurt North Dakota [Americans for Tax Reform] OCT 01, 2009 09:56A.M. In our continuing, daily, state by state, look at the financial impact of the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade Tax Bill, we will show you the projected

Many Americans apparently believe that Russia is a paper tiger and would never challenge a U.S. security guarantee. But both World Wars I and II began in spite of alliance commitments. Deterrence failed. And it likely would have failed in the Caucasus even if Tbilisi had belonged to NATO. Russia’s border security is a vital interest to Moscow but largely irrelevant to America. Thus, Russia still would have had strong cause to act, while it still would have been in Washington’s interest to do nothing. The result likely would have been the same: a Georgian defeat, magnified by even greater humiliation of America and Europe, forced to stand by as their official ally was crushed.

losses in Gross State Product, Personal Income, and N...

The only worse result would have been the U.S. and “Old Europe” putting force behind their NATO commitment. We survived the Cold War without conflict between the major nuclear-armed powers. To risk a nuclear confrontation over a war started by an authoritarian nationalist contrary to American interests would be foolhardy beyond belief. Georgia illustrates how carelessly collecting allies and passing out security guarantees is a prescription for insecurity and potential disaster. Americans should sympathize with the Georgian people, who have been ill-served by their own government as well as mistreated by the Russian government. But that’s no reason to risk war on Tbilisi’s behalf. Instead

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of continuing to expand NATO, Washington should begin the process of

2 October 2009

... The third element in a successful strategy against al-Qaeda is to disaggregate the many elements of the movement and develop more sophisticated, targeted counter-terrorism policies tailored to its constituent parts. The aim must be to enlarge the movement’s internal inconsistencies and differences . . . .

turning Europe’s security over to Europe.

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Is the U.S. Government Behaving Strategically With Regard to Al Qaeda? [Cato at Liberty]

At our counterterrorism conference, terrorism expert Marc Sageman similarly said, “We often unify our enemies needlessly. . . . Let’s not unify our enemy and give it strength that way.” (If you don’t watch all of panel III, you can start at minute 66.)

OCT 01, 2009 08:36A.M.

reflects the counsel of these experts.

Read Michael E. Leiter’s testimony for yourself and see how well it

To its credit, the Department of Homeland Security distributes important documents via email. (Subscribe on their home page by scrolling down to find the “Subscribe to E-mail Updates:” box in the right column, then select your preferences.)

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An Interview with the Next President of the United States? [Larry Kudlow’s Money Politic$]

Yesterday DHS sent me a copy of the written testimony by Michael E. Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing titled: “Eight Years After 9/11: Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland.” As I read Leiter’s (relatively brief) testimony, I wondered how well it squares with the strategic counsel offered by Audrey Kurth Cronin, Professor of Strategy at the U.S. National War College, Senior Research Associate in the Changing Character of War Programme at Oxford University, and a participant in Cato’s January counterterrorism strategy conference.

OCT 01, 2009 08:24A.M. Last night I had the pleasure of interviewing an old friend of the program, Texas Republican Senator and gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison. Among other things, we discussed why she’s leaving Washington and heading back home to run against Gov. Rick Perry for the Governor’s seat. I’ll just say this: If she wins in Texas, she’ll be president in 2012.

In her Institute for International Strategic Studies paper, “Ending Terrorism: Lessons for Defeating Al-Qaeda,” she offered several counterterrorism strategy pointers: The first prong of a successful strategy to counter al-Qaeda’s terrorism is to clarify to audiences around the globe exactly what al-Qaeda is and what it is not. This is not just of academic interest. It is partly because there is so much vague use of the name ‘al-Qaeda’ that it seems superhuman and ubiquitious. . . . When politicians and experts employ the term ‘al-Qaeda’ loosely, they help its propagandists to construct and perpetuate their desired image and to mobilise support. ... Violent internal cleavages and bickering are endemic to the al-Qaeda movement, and have been from the outset, and the second prong in a successful strategy against al-Qaeda is consciously to exploit them.

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